This was one of the quirkiest collections from Givenchy in years and untypical of Tisci who seems to be moving away from a more aggressive, combative aesthetic.

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PICCIOLI GOES SOLO AT VALENTINO

After his fashion partner Maria Grazia Chiuri was picked to stand at the creative helm of Dior, Pierpaolo Piccioli was left to go it alone at Valentino.

The Italian designer was given control over the Rome-based house last summer, and, for the first time since the duo arrived at Valentino and oversaw a hugely profitable change in aesthetic, Piccioli’s individual work would be under the intense scrutiny of the critics.

Sunday’s show was his solo debut.

Show organizers cleverly turned the Piccioli solo debut into a fashion event by reducing the number of seats and making the spring-summer a hard-to-get ticket.

And the fashion elite that attended were not disappointed. It was a very strong show that presented a crisper aesthetic than when the duo designed.

Jaguar rose, on-trend vermilion, and repeated shades of red and bright yellow might well have been symbolic of boldness.

And the crisp geometry - shards on skirts, rectangular pant pleats and sharp V’s cut down the bust of floor-length dresses - marked a subtle, but important, move away from the previous softer-edged aesthetic.

Indeed, that soft-edged aesthetic appeared elsewhere this week: in Grazia Chiuri’s debut show at Dior.

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CELINE’S PLAY OF PROPORTION

Ever-creative Phoebe Philo delivered a finely executed play on proportion and balance for Celine’s spring-summer show.

The “intellectual” off-kilter feeling continued in designs that turned inside garments out - like underskirts on the exterior, inverted capes, and even bustier underwear motifs on the front of a series of white dresses.

But the brainy fashion musing was never unapproachable - as it can tend to be - because Philo delivered it in a tasteful color palette on soft silhouettes and voluminous lengths.